New graphics cards are great, especially when they are in the "affordable for most people" range. nVidia's GeForce 8600 and 8500 series has been a long waited product. Why? Most importantly it's the first affordable DirectX 10 capable graphics card from any company and nVidia even have Windows Vista drivers ready for the new range of cards at launch time.

This product is so good for the market for two reasons - the first is that consumers who don't have thousands of dollars to spend on a PC can now buy something that is going to offer support for the next generation of graphics (DX10 / Shader Model 4.0 with games like Crysis, Alan Wake and UT2007 coming). The second is because more people will be able to buy these GeForce 8500 and 8500 cards with it's much more attractive price tag, game makers will have even more reason to put resources into making DirectX 10 supported games. The latter is something that is seriously lacking at the moment but the games are on their way slowly but surely.

The last two generations of mid-range graphics cards from nVidia have followed a GT naming scheme as the top mid-range card, the 6600GT was the best of the 6600 series and the 7600GT was the best of the 7600 series. This time around the 8600GT is the second best of the series and the new bad boy is the 8600GTS, which is exactly what we have here with us today.

XFX is the first contestant with their GeForce 8600GTS XXX. Let's continue on and discover the performance in single card configuration and see what exactly we have on offer.